At Teck, many of our operations are located in areas with abundant outdoor recreational opportunities. In the Elk Valley of British Columbia, where we operate five coal mines and have regional offices in Sparwood, backcountry snowmobiling is a popular activity for residents, many of whom are Teck employees.

Teck’s Cardinal River Operations has received a Mining Association of Canada (MAC) TSM Leadership Award for its outstanding performance in the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) initiative’s three focus areas—environmental stewardship, communities and people, and energy efficiency.

We know that staying healthy day-to-day can be a challenge. We have launched a comprehensive Health and Wellness program to bring health and wellness initiatives together with resources across the company, to create a means for sharing best practices and, above all, to ensure that everyone goes home safe and healthy every day.

We identify the root causes of incidents to help prevent them from recurring. In 2008, we began tracking high-potential incidents (HPIs) and in 2012 recognized the need to standardize our process for identifying their root causes and key contributing factors. In 2013, we evaluated three incident investigation methodologies and selected the Incident Cause Analysis Method (ICAM).

Fatigue is a serious issue for heavy industries, including mining. In addition to the obvious risks involved in operating vehicles or other heavy machinery while tired, sleep deprivation or a lack of restorative sleep – often encountered by shift workers– can result in reduced fitness for work because our ability to perform both physically and mentally is reduced. To combat that, it is important to get between seven and eight hours of sleep per 24-hour period.

We began tracking the most serious potential incidents — called high-potential incidents (HPIs) — in 2008 to monitor our safety performance. In 2012, we began standardizing our process for identifying the root causes of HPIs.

At Teck, nothing is more important than everyone going home safe and healthy every day. In 2014, for example, we reduced our high-potential incident (HPI) frequency rate by 22% compared to 2013, and attained a 25% lower reportable injury frequency than in 2013.